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Bitmain’s new datacenter

Bitmain Technologies Ltd, one of the major players in Bitcoin business has announced its plan to enhance its overall performance. This virtual mutual fund firm is known for its success in manufacturing its servers and now it has invested in constructing an extensive datacenter. The firm’s leadership based in China revealed that the upcoming data center will not only house the servers but power them too.

According to its strategic planning, the firm is geared towards completing the 45 complex solar-powered data center soon. The building of this huge power center is inspired by the desire of the firm to be part of the Bitcoin mining operation. Therefore, the data center will be a major application in this mining process that involves stakeholders in the Bitcoin’s industry. The P2P network allows the players to actively take part in the said process. The data center complex will be based in the Xinjiang, which is one of the Chinese autonomous regions. The planned building is expected to attract nearly 140 megawatts, hence having a capacity to host some of the high-speed projects globally.

The firm’s decision to build a data center to host and power its servers will go a long way in enabling it to effectively participate in the mining process. In this case, Bitmain Technologies Ltd will have the capacity to configure the parameters required to generate the encryption necessary for virtual monetary transactions for the cryptocurrency. This process is made possible by the fact that encryption that brings about the bitcoin’s blockchain is not based on an algorithm.

Sources in Bitmain said that the solar-powered data center will improve the already well performing Antminer manufacturing process. Just to put a few facts into perspective, the Antminer is an essential mining dedicated hardware component. The Antminers are known for their high power consumption since a single operational component uses up to 845W. For instance, a Bitmain’s Antminer version is normally plugged into a power supply amounting to 220V. This version of Bitcoin mining component appears like an outdoor mosquito trap positioned on its side which uses uncovered wires. Indeed, the Antminer has a total of 2600W of power output at its peak.

Bitmain’s 45 building capacity facts

An antique mining device known as a calculator revealed that around 159, 763 Antminers can be effectively powered by 135MW. With this in mind, the Bitmain’s complex with 45 buildings is likely to hold 3,550 Antminers in each building. The complex appears like a POW camp using the solar power while viewed from 3D models.

Considering that a 5U form factor of a stripped down Antminer can host 8 units, it is possible for BItmain to accommodate 8 Antminers that is if they ensure that the power consumption of every single Antminer is fully optimized.

Following this announcement, it is clear that Bitmain Technologies Ltd’s vision of building a complex data center in Xinjiang to host its servers is a viable solution to its power gaps. The center will with no doubts power their Bitcoin mining process resulting in high virtual currency production.

Did you know that bitcoin has provided a booming business for automated traders? Most online traders are using it as a means of making easy money through narrow profit margins. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency which is available in the capital market. According to Zhou Shuoji, this cryptocurrency stands no chance of replacing the traditional currencies, though most traders seem to believe in it.

Mr. Shuoji, a 35 year old Beijing based online trader adds that bitcoin attracts a majority of traders in the capital market. As a matter of fact, he is one of those who trade it round the clock every single day, as it dominates most of the quick orders he places in the exchange market. Traders make huge profits by taking advantage of the small margin of price discrepancies that emerges during the exchange of bitcoin.

Though Mr. Shouji regards those who ardently use bitcoin as fanatics, he is quick to reiterate that those who are trading it are enjoying golden moments specifically due to its status of imperfection as it is not a true currency. Actually, he has vast experience in using this cryptocurrency as he operates a bitcoin hedge fund through his Fintech Blockchain Group firm. Mr. Shouji’s observation about bitcoin cannot be underestimated as he worked as a technology consultant with IBM.

Professional traders especially those from Chinese origin, equipped with adequate skills in cutting edge technology constitute about 80 percent of bitcoin traders. These traders make most of their money by imitating the trading strategies used by top players present on Wall Street. For these traders, bitcoin is not just a “fake” currency but an available asset ready to yield money using the computer in a live capital market.

Just like other online trading markets, bitcoin trading comes with its risks that include:

Cyber attacks, good examples being Bitfinex and Mt. Gox in 2011 where traders incurred huge losses.

Major price swings some being more than two times bigger than those experienced in S&P 500.

These risks have cast a shadow of uncertainty in bitcoin trading as they expose traders to huge losses.

In addition, potential investors in the cryptocurrency market are wary of a possible regulatory crackdown by the Chinese authorities. This is in their bid to stop any investment avenue that may transfer the wealth overseas.

Though China based banks were banned from trading bitcoin back in 2013, foreign firms are still active players in the Chinese exchange market. Traders using the Chinese venues that host the majority of the world’s turnover are not required to pay the transaction fee. Chances of making money are high for each trader, as the market is structured to tick the right boxes hence creating winning opportunities in multiple exchanges. Bitcoinity.org tracks the volumes during trading sessions.

Chen Zhenguo, founder of the biggest cryptocurrency trading platform in China adds his voice on the gains of engaging on this trade. The 30 year old Bitcoin trader based in Beijing ascertains that automated traders have an edge in bitcoin market. Mr. Zhenguo’s BotVS platform gives new traders an opportunity to perform bitcoin demo trades before engaging in the real market.

Cloud Computing Data Center in Témara, Morocco

The first Cloud Computing platform on a 100% Moroccan site was inaugurated in Témara on 19 September by the Secretary of State for Investment Othman El Ferdaous, who has multiplied the eye-openers towards ECOWAS countries. This is the first Cloud Computing platform but not the first data center in Morocco.

The Morocco DataCenter resembles a life-size lego game and extends over 2000 m2 in the outskirts of Rabat. It is built by the Medasys Group (Medafrica System, a Moroccan group created in 1995 specializing in high value-added IT). At the request of the General Directorate of Security and Information Systems (DGSSI), its first ambition is to guarantee the digital sovereignty of the Kingdom. Therefore, the important and sensitive data held by the administration remain located on the national territory. A digital security issue, but not only one of digital security.

First stone to an African digital hub

From the very first moments of his speech, Othman El Ferdaous instigated an African dimension to the Morocco Data Center project:”Among the 70 engineers, all are Moroccans but there is also a Chadian, which augurs well for the strategic depth of this data center in relation to West Africa,” he said. If the references to ECOWAS were not clear enough, the Secretary of State for Investment does not go there by four ways:”ECOWAS, which Morocco will integrate, is 750 million inhabitants in 30 years”. And so many development prospects for El Ferdaous who says that he wants to “challenge the status quo and make Morocco a “digital hub” for West Africa and animate the entrepreneurial ecosystem”.

Medasys has already embarked on this movement and has entered into a partnership with the UK-based Zircom group, a leading manufacturer and operator of data centers in the UK. The objective is to create a joint venture for the creation of a “Morocco International Gateway Datacenter”, which will address both the Moroccan and African markets. This mega data center will be five times the size of Morocco Datacenter, for an investment of 800 million dirhams, financed by European funds. “The studies will be launched from November 2017 onwards for a planned commissioning at the end of 2018 / beginning of 2019”, confides Mohammed Benmira, administrator of the Morocco Datacenter and Managing Director of Medasys, to Telquel. ma.

Reach 25,000 TPMEs and 30 administrations and large companies within 2 years

“We want to say to the public, private companies, small and medium-sized companies: focus on your core business, we’ll take care of IT,”says Mohammed Benmira. With an initial budget of 85 million dirhams, the project could reach 370 million dirhams after its development phase. Asked by Telquel. ma about the target in terms of customers, the general manager explains his ambition to reach “20,000 to 25,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and 30 large structures, both in the public administration and in private structures within 2 years “. For the time being, contracts have been concluded with Portnet (platform for the dematerialization of documentary flows relating to foreign trade) and Morocco PME, which is also a partner in the Imtiaz project.

Energy bills of MAD100,000 to MAD450,000 per month

While Othman El Ferdaous risks speaking of an “immaterial infrastructure”, it is nonetheless very tangible, with a significant cost in electricity. “From 100,000 to 450,000 dirhams per month”, confides Abdelilah Sbai, administrator of the data center. With “third party 3” technology, which allows the system to continue to operate even in the event of a unit failure, the data center is designed to run for 36 hours without electricity.

With regard to the environmental impact, managers proudly state that they “have no environmental footprint”, due to the absence of a hot air release system, avoided by cooling cabinets. However, the impressive consumption of electricity cannot be without environmental consequences, even if these are indirect.

DuPont Fabros Technology based in D.C is officially a Digital Realty subsidiary. This has come to pass after the sealing of a $7.8 billion deal. The transactions were made public in the announcement made in June that revealed the terms of the proposed deal between the district based data center developer and the San Francisco Digital Realty Trust Inc.

During the announcement, the intention of bringing together the Digital Realty footprint comprising of 45 properties present in the 33 metro areas with the 12 data centers belonging to DuPont Fabros Technology was revealed. As a result of the merger, stockholders in DuPont Fabros Technology are expected to acquire 0.545 of Digital Realty shares for every single share. This move alone has raised the value of DuPont Fabros to $63.63 per share.

When the possible merger was being announced, the proposed board was to consist of 10 members from Digital Realty while two other members were to join them from DuPont Fabros. As a matter of fact, Mr. Michael Coke and John Roberts Jr. who were sitting members in the former DuPont Fabros board have been appointed to join the Digital Realty’s board of directors. Consequently, the company’s headquarters would be moved from D.C to San Francisco.

Digital Realty’s CEO Mr. William Stein said that the firm’s move to acquire DuPont Fabros Technology is strategic as it will enhance their service delivery. He added that the merger will go a long way in solidifying their blue-chip, which is their customer base. Previously, Digital Realty data centers widely spread in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia were hosting over 2,300 firms. Following the recently concluded transactions, the company will have the capacity to host more firms. This is meant to happen as DuPont Fabros brings its portfolio of 12 data centers located in Silicon Valley, North Virginia and Chicago.

According to its fact sheet, DuPont Fabros had not placed an active advert indicating its willingness to sell or merge with another company. However, they considered the request from Digital Realty that came with a clearly put down offer made by the company’s board. As soon as the written offer was received, both companies agreed to have a meeting for the shareholders which took place later in summer for their approval of the merger. It is the go-ahead by the shareholders from both companies that the deal has been sealed.

The fact sheet also revealed that the shifting of the headquarters to the West Coast may open up opportunities for some of the DuPont Fabros staff to work for Digit Realty. However, he said opportunities have not been revealed and the individuals who will be appointed.

The high revenue potential of DuPont Fabros can be traced back in 2016 when it emerged as 11th top traded among the real estate investments in the larger Washington region. The firm generated revenue about $528.7 million. The firm was founded back in 2007 with a staff capacity of 122.

Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation has spent $10million, for a data center startup Nautilus with Patented Technology. The company made this mega investment via Keppel Data Center Pte.Ltd which is its subsidiary.

Nautilus is a Series C prefered stock funding

It is important to note that Nautilus Technologies Inc belongs to Series C preferred stock funding. Actually, Nautilus is a prestigious company known for its use of economic and eco-friendly assembled facilities that utilizes patented water cooling technology. This company is located in California State in the USA and was the only one of its kind to start a data center which is waterborne back in 2015. During this time, the company launched the dater center on a vessel, a move that depicted versatile modalities of setting up a data center in the existing and gradually growing technology market sphere.

The decision by Kepel T&T to make the investment comes as Nautilus is in the process of constructing a commercial based data center in Mare Island Naval Shipyard. This data center with an estimated power capacity of 6MW is due for launching in 2018 all things being equal. The power from this data center which is carrier neutral will be distributed among all the four data vaults that are in need to be powered.

According to Keppel T&T’s CEO Mr. Wong Wai Meng, the company has approved the investment with the intention that Nautilus data center will lead to great and quality technological innovation. This is aimed at widening their customer care in data center resources. He noted that the demand for advanced data center infrastructure is increasing hence need to up the game in this field. The investment will definitely give Keppel T&T an edge in the digital market.

Why a waterborne data center?

Keppel T&T Ltd has a great interest in Nautilus waterborne data center because it has its roots in that technology. It is interesting to know that Keppel T&T is a subsidiary of Keppel Corporation Ltd. Keppel Corporation is fully immersed in investments, property, and advanced networking business both in marine and offshore markets. In fact, the company appears at the top of SGX-ST Main Board listing. Consequently, Keppel T&T tops the SGX-ST’s list due to its data centers and logistics services in European as well as Asia-Pacific regions. Today, this Keppel’s logistic subsidiary has fully established and operational centers in Singapore, providing logistic solutions tailored for specific customers. This subsidiary has accumulated an experience in the logistics field for over 40 years now.

Keppel T&T Ltd concentrates its resources on utilizing waterborne data centers other than the traditional ones. The company banks on the advantages of the waterborne centers that outmatch those of the traditional air-cooled centers. For example, the water cooled data centers belonging to Nautilus uses compound systems that can be effectively installed within half the time required to put up the traditional ones. Unlike traditional data centers that must have complex cooling towers that are costly and refrigerants, waterborne centers utilize natural water bodies to provide chilled water to cool the air in the server rooms.

Clouds and hosting services are expanding gradually in Germany with NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) declaring that it will soon launch a data center in Bonn. The company targets to make use of e-shelter, which is one of the leading cloud and hosting operators and service providers in the European market. NTT Com, is an ICT firm based in Tokyo, Japan, that draws its resources from different firms as it is made up of a group of companies that include;

NTT DOCOMO

NTT DATA

Dimension Data Company

NTT Com Rhein-Ruhr has a wide area for server space of about 2,700 square meters that can be equated to 1,100 racks. This is a huge server space enough to cater for increasing customers’ demands for data cloud services.

NTT Com has a history of reliable and secure cloud service delivery thanks to its well enhanced worldwide infrastructure that serves a total of 195 regions and more than 140 data centers globally. The company has some of the top centers in the world such as Arcstar Universal One VPN network and Tier 1 IP network. NTT Com provides the following services for complete optimization of ICT environments in the region:

ICT consultancy

Building infrastructure

Providing data security

Cloud data services

NTT Com plan to expand its data services in Europe are likely to succeed greatly considering that their e-shelter subsidiary is already developing and managing high-performing data centers in the region. Basically, e-shelter provides a blueprint, builds the infrastructure, takes charge of operations and security of the premises. NTT Com’s subsidiary e-shelter secures the customer’s IT and network systems, making them readily available with maximum security in a favorable environment.

NTT Com has invested on Rhein-Ruhr 1 cloud data hosting services with over 300 combined standards for Nexcenter’s equipment and operations. These high standards will enhance data availability and save the energy as well. Indeed, the center will have an overall receiving power of 7 Megawatts. Two separate systems have been put in place for supplementary power supply if need be.

The NTT Com’s data center in Rhein-Ruhr is expected to provide services for key players in the public sector. The company seeks to respond to an increase in data hosting services within Europe. In fact, this NTT Com has been providing data center services in different parts of Europe including France, Spain, Germany, Uk, Switzerland, and Austria. It is important to note that Rhein-Ruhr is upcoming prime data centers site hence an ideal choice for NTT Com center.

As the demand for data centers continues to grow in the European market, developing viable infrastructure in Germany is vital. This role is being effectively played by e-shelter in preparation for the future digital transformation in Germany, as its founder and CEO Rupprecht Rittweger notes. In his remarks, Mr. Rittweger added that the building has been strategically designed to cater for future data centers’ needs in the region.

It is official! CITIC Telecom International CPC Ltd has acquired Linx Telecommunications B.V. This came to be after CITIC Telecom CPC met all the regulatory requirements. The deal is aimed at expanding CITIC Telecom’s network in the global market and enhancing its presence in the major target markets such as One Belt, One Road which is Chinese economic cooperation initiative, the market in Central and Eastern parts of Europe as well as Central Asia.

In a real sense, Linx Telecommunications B.V becomes a bridge for CITIC Telecom CPC to become one of the leading players in the ICT global market, especially in the Asian and European region. In his briefing, CITIC Telecom’s chairman Sir. Xin Yue Jiang highlighted that the ability of the company to penetrate “One Belt One Road” is a dream come true.

Mr. Xin Yue further explained that this has been one of the most important strategic growth plans towards which the company directed its resources to achieve. He added that through the acquisition of Linx Telecommunications B.V, CITIC Telecom will be able to widen its local and global infrastructure with Hong Kong and Macau acting as the base of their operation and fueling center for its business. At the same time, One Belt One Road offers a prime opportunity for the company to retain China as its business footstool.

Mr. Xin’s sentiments were echoed by Dr. Tiger Lin who is the CEO and Executive Director of CITIC Telcom International Holdings Limited, which is CITIC Telecom CPC’s mother company. In his statement, Dr. Tiger disclosed that the group has indeed achieved one of its expansion strategies through its successful acquisition of Linx Telecommunications B.V. He said that the expansion will eventually enhance the company’s performance in service delivery to its customers.

Dr. Tiger retaliated this project will enable the company to have a broad geographical coverage that will improve its mobility and internet. Consequently, this will bring about robust service delivery that will guarantee ever-present ICT solutions to customers in the vast global online market. He concluded by saying that the company will not rest here but dedicate more synergies and resources in acquiring more coverage globally.

Exactly what has CITIC Telecom CPC acquired?

One would wonder what exactly CITIC Telecom CPC will benefit with by fully acquiring Linx Telecommunications. Well here are some details:

Estonia’s largest internet exchange center (TLL-IX). This is made possible by the acquisition of Linx’s data center based in Tallinn.

Linx’s technical team comprising of ICT experts with vast experience in data centers management and network operations. The team automatically becomes CITIC Telecommunications CPC’s staff members, bringing in their Russian language proficiency and vast knowledge of coverage territory as an added advantage to the company.

CITIC Telecom CPC’s HO and CEO Mr. Stephen noted that Linx’s portfolio is a big boost to that of CITIC which already has coverage of 120 countries. CITIC Telecom has about 100 points of (POPs) in Asian, European and USA territories.

It is an exciting season for cloud services customers as Rackspace® makes a major investment in the European market. This Top data hosting service provider plans to open a new data center to cater for firms in need of cloud data hosting services within Germany, Switzerland and Austria (DACH) IT territory. According to the company’s managers, the data center will be based in Germany. The company intends to expand its services with the aim of providing a viable option for hosting services in the region.

The data center due for launch in mid-2017 is carefully woven serve customers in need of private hosting with completely managed VMware clouds environments. In order to come up with functional data hosting infrastructure for reliable cloud services, the provider plans to liaise with their partners, a corroboration which is intended to make this new venture a success.

Rackspace® has a proven track record of efficient, secure and reliable data hosting services globally. In fact, the company’s engineers have vast experience that has stood the test of time, in designing, deploying and operating fully optimized AWS and Azure data hosting services. To spice it up, the engineers are proud holders of over 500 AWS certifications. Engaging this team of professionals and experts in data hosting, the company projects to provide superior hosting services that are likely to broaden its multi-cloud environment service portfolio due to the great performance of the new data center.

To spearhead the operations in the new cloud center in Frankfurt, Rackspace® appointed one Mr. Alex Fuerst back in September 2016 who previously played some key IT leadership roles within the DACH territory. However, Mr. Fuerst will not act alone as he has contracted a team of specialist to facilitate successful service delivery of fully managed private cloud hosting environments in DACH territory. In this case, the team will be of great help in operating the complex AWS and Azure cloud environment as well as reducing their managing costs for the benefit of customers.

Mr. Fuerst conveyed his excitement in the upcoming Rackspace® data center in Frankfurt. He said that the cloud center which will be online soon through his leadership will meet the increasing customers’ demand for data hosting services in Germany and the DACH region at large. He added that the move of building an online data hosting center on the European continental market was motivated by the high demand for quality services of private managed clouds and hosting environments, together with professional management of AWS and Azure in the region from U.S and EMEA users. Mr. Fuerst hinted that good performance of the new data center will open doors for Rackspace to realize its dream of being the leading managed cloud service providers in DACH region.

Alex Fuerst concluded by saying that the new Frankfurt data center will increase the security of the data stored, improve performance and enhance private cloud hosting and management. This being the 12th data center managed by Rackspace® worldwide will cut cloud data operational and management costs hence making the services available and affordable to all online users.

What is dark fiber

Dark fiber refers to unused optical fiber infrastructure. It is a mixture of remaining switches, repeaters, and cabling of fiber optic cables. Today, the name of it has evolved and it now includes the practice of leasing the unused fiber optic lines from network operators and providers.

A company or an individual can lease the unused dark strands and create their privately operated network rather than just leasing the bandwidth. The leased dark fiber network is separate from the main network and is controlled by the leasing company rather than the network provider.

Unlimited bandwidth

If your company is looking for unlimited bandwidth and wants to control and manage its network without incurring increased monthly costs, then fiber network is the solution. Fiber optics works such that information is conveyed over optical fiber networks through beams of light. There has to be light for data to be transported without light no data is transported hence the name “dark fiber.”

In the mid-1990s during the information revolution, fiber optic companies laid more fiber optic lines to avoid future expansion costs due to exponential data growth. The overestimation of the fiber optic infrastructure meant that optical fiber networks had extra capacity that was not used. Today, these unused dark lines are important because companies and individuals use them to establish their optical connections independent from the operator network.

When you get dark fiber, you light it with your electronics and maintain direct operational control while leveraging on the dense metro. In this case, the phone company neither controls nor connects the leased fiber strands but instead the leasing company provides the components of making it functional.

Setting up dark fiber map

Dark fiber map can be set in different ways including point to point, point to multipoint and fiber rings configurations. When using dark fiber, you should expect high security, super fast speeds, and high performance. Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) has always been key to the development and functioning of the Dark Fiber because it helps multiple data signals to transmit over the same optical strand simultaneously.

Although data signals are transported at the same time, they use different wavelengths in fiber optic. The DWDM feature increases bandwidth that allows more information to be sent through a fiber optic cable. With DWDM, one optical fiber is transformed into several virtual fibers.

Control your network

Leasing a dark fiber puts you in control of your network. It allows your company to have its preferred transmission technology that it can deploy over the point-to-point connection. It has reliable performance, and it allows your business to enjoy unlimited bandwidth at all times, depends on your equipment.

Using a dark fiber, your company can set transmission speed and transmission protocol at will. Being that fiber network is not tunneled or routed through the public Internet, it gives you a secure way to connect your critical sites without any worries.

It is because being the only person using your line. Your company is assured of a high level of security. The dark fiber also utilizes less power but have better signal strength, high capacity due to the DWDM that makes it immune to interference, which is a common feature in traditional networks.

CenturyLink to Buy Level 3 for $34 Billion in Cash, Stock

CenturyLink Inc. announced on Monday that it will purchase Level 3 Communications Inc. for around $34 billion in cash and stock. Both telecommunication companies have enormous networks acquired through a number of deals over recent years, and this acquisition will significantly increase competition for AT&T Inc. in the market to route web traffic for businesses. The acquisition, which includes assumed debt, values Level 3 at $66.50 per share, around 42 percent higher than last week, before reports of the CenturyLink acquisition surfaced.

Level 3

Level 3, based in Broomfield, Colorado, is one of the largest telecommunications providers routing traffic across the web, a service that is in heavy demand from large industry players such as Netflix Inc. and Google. Level 3’s operations – operating high-bandwith internet connections for a variety of businesses – will augment CenturyLink’s existing offerings. CenturyLink, which is based in Monroe, Louisiana, will also gain access to around $10 billion in tax credits currently on Level 3’s books, said Jennifer Fritzsche, a Wells Fargo Securities LLC analyst.

Glen Post, CenturyLink’s Chief Executive Officer, will continue as CEO of the combined company, while Sunit Patel, Level 3’s Chief Financial Officer, will assume the role of CFO.

According to Vertical Systems Group Inc, in the first half of 2016, Level 3 was the second-biggest U.S. provider of ethernet services, second to only AT&T, while CenturyLink was fifth.

CenturyLink shares fell, Level 3 rose

In early trading on Monday, CenturyLink shares fell 8 percent to $27.95 while Level 3 shares rose 7 percent to $57.81. At the same time, Trace, the bond price reporting system of the Financial Industry regulatory body, reported that CenturyLink’s $1.4 billion of bonds, which are to mature in 2022 paying 5.8 percent, dropped 1.56 cents to 103 cents. And according to data provider CMA, the cost to protect against losses on CenturyLink’s notes climbed to 336 basis points, an increase of 35 points.

CenturyLink, one of the largest telephone companies in the U.S., was formed when CenturyTel Inc. acquired Embarq Corp. in 2009 followed by Qwest Communications International Inc. in 2011.

CenturyLink had been exploring the sale of its datacenter business and according to Phil Cusick, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co., “the combination makes a lot of sense given the combination of Level 3’s and CTL’s legacy Qwest national wireline business networks.”

On Monday, CenturyLink reported a third-quarter profit of 56 cents a share after one-time items on revenue of $4.38 billion. Profit per share was higher than Bloomberg’s 55-cent estimate, while the revenue result was consistent with projections. Meanwhile, Level 3 reported earnings of 39 cents a share, falling short of the 42-cent average estimate. Sales fell to $2.03 billion, lower than the $2.07 billion projection.

Both CenturyLink and Level 3 have faced increasing competition from cable providers and smaller competitors who also offer internet and telephone services to businesses. While CenturyLink does offer residential telephone and internet services in a number of cities, it generates around two-thirds of its revenue from business customers.

One of the biggest Telco Deals of the Year!

The acquisition is one of the biggest telecommunications deals of the year. On Friday, Level 3 had a market value of $19.4 billion, with around $11 billion in debt. Meanwhile, CenturyLink was valued at about $16.6 billion, with around $19 billion in debt.

Level 3 assists content distributors such as Netflix with delivery and network services, helping to set aside sufficient servers and transportation capacity to improve load times. With an ever-increasing number of users choosing to stream movies and TV shows over the web, content delivery networks have become increasingly important in allowing distributors to deliver a seamless experience to users. Viewers should experience fewer delays and a decrease in buffering when content is moved closer to users and traffic patterns are effectively managed.

CenturyLink was advised on the deal by Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley, who have committed to lending the company about $10.2 billion in new secured debt. A fairness option was issued by Evercore Partners Inc. and legal advice was provided by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Jones Walker.

Level 3 was advised by Citigroup Inc. A fairness option was issued by Lazard Ltd. and legal advice was provided by Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.